A common method of holding a door in an open position is to use an electromagnet attached to an adjacent wall and an armature plate attached to the pull side of the door. As shown in FIGS. 1-4, the armature and the magnet are installed at the same distance from the door pivot point and come in contact when the door is opened to the maximum position. Hopefully, this occurs when the door is opened to 90.degree. from the closed position, however, this can only happen when the combined depth of the mating magnet and armature assembly is equal to the distance from the pull face of the door to the wall as shown in FIG. 2. Additionally, the width of the door is another variable that influences the angle at which the door is held, as shown in FIG. 4.
Because of the fixed distance from the armature plate to the face of the door and the fixed distance from the pivot point of the door to the adjoining wall; and/or the different widths of the door; the user of the electromagnetic holder is at the mercy of the sum of these variables and must accept the resultant dictated degree of door opening at the hold open position.
There is, however, a single, albeit expensive and limited option to affect a more desirable degree of hold open position. The user may modify the door attachment base by specially ordering a thinner one to increase the angle of the door or by specially ordering spacers to increase the armature base to door face distance, thereby decreasing the angle of the door in its held open position.